The complications between theory and hands on Research

First week of full study interviews (meaning, not pilot nor control groups). It has begun, though with some modifications.

The original intention had been to have four pilot interviews, which logistics and scheduling forced down to two. Problems with two of the interviews were as follows: The first interview (P.P.1) had to cancel due to an emergency when we had only just gotten started and was never able to find a suitable time to reschedule, and intended fourth interview (P.P.4) was slow in responding to scheduling requests (second and third interviews occured without any problems). These four had been selected by consultation between myself and the sexual health officer at Rainbow Project who selected the individuals for pilot testing, based upon their experience of LGB&T issues in Northern Ireland, their assortment of age & professional demographics, and the perception that they would be qualified to give constructive feedback on the structure, format and data (both intended and collected) of the interviews. Timelines for this project have aways been limited, with a growing awareness of the mortality of timelines. It has been a constant concern and one of the aspects of the project I had misjudged in the planning stages. Getting established, gaining entry, and field observation took far longer than had been anticipated, despite the sense of having been relatively well prepared.

If one aspect of the project had to be chosen for best executed, it has always been the preparation phase. This portion of the project begun in January of 2013 and ended December of 2013 included extensive perusal of academic, news, and popular literature on Northern Ireland, as well as media. I’m most proud of this and it has been remarked on several occasions that my level of knowledge on the issues present in the culture and political landscape is astonishing.

That said, I could have gone even further by studying sport and games (such as gaelic, rugby, hurling, and football). However, this would have been of very little use in my current project beyond facilitating the gaining entry with more general Northern Irish society and putting me more at ease (like most of the world, sport here is highly valued and in many ways revered as a sort of secular religion. The “high altar of our blessed pitch,” if you will). Had I been interviewing other portions of Northern Irish society this would have been necessary. Thankfully, the stereotype holds true and gay men are less prone to demand sport adherence, though still much higher in the British LGB&T communities than in the US. A week and a half ago, while visiting Edinburgh, I visited a gay bar which was practically a sports bar. It gave me several minutes of confusion as I struggled to determine if I was in the right place, finally discovering I was by searching through the literature for distribution on the wall!

Much of the actual carrying out of the project and the associated problems I’ve found to be the normal aspects of first time research. My grasp of theory was fairly good thanks to my research methods course last semester, however, it is the most practical aspects in the actual carrying out which have been a problem, especially in the understanding of timelines and tracking down, scheduling, and interviewing participants, then processing their interviews. Rookie mistakes. BUT not mistakes that would bias, call into question, or otherwise diminish the academic soundness of the data itself.

While more pilot interviewing would have been preferable, the questions had been screened by several individuals and changes mades upon their recommendations. Some adjustments were also made following the 1st completed pilot interview (P.P.2), but these were made on the basis of flow, rather than function. The second interview completed (P.P.3) was conducted with a mental health counselor whose an expert in Northern Irish LGB&T concerns, that indicated his satisfaction with both the flow and the format of the prompts. I found that the data being obtained was satisfactory and objective, without signs of bias, and decided that further pilot testing would merely pose to delay the project further. It was decided to begin active testing to achieve timetables of interview completion by 31st of March (with the exception of control interviews which will be completed the second week in May).

Beyond the pilot testing cut short, the only other matter which has posed a concern is the time scheduled between participants. Originally an hour was thought to suffice, which was expanded to an Hour and a Half following P.P.3. This was decided to expand even further after the first regular participant, P.1, took 2 hours 20 minutes. The next scheduled interview had taken into account an hour and a half, and was forced to wait 45 minutes. Thankfully, the second participant (P.2) who was the civil partner of P.1 was understanding and agreed to reschedule. It was decided that no less than 3 hours would be necessary between scheduling interviews.